Environment: And Now, Cadmium

Before killing herself in 1969, Takako Nakamura wrote: "The pains gnaw
at my body. I want to throw out my stomach and intestines." Read aloud
to Japan's hushed Diet last month, those words moved Prime Minister
Eisaku Sato to tears. Takako Nakamura has become a symbol of the tragic
results of Japan's unchecked pollution.

At 18, Takako became a lathe operator at a cadmium smelter near her home
in Annaka, a city on the main island of Honshu. When she began
suffering mysterious pains in 1961, no one even thought to blame
cadmium. As...